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Y'all keep on saying there needs to be a crackdown or code enforcement. While I don't want another tragedy like Ghost Ship to happen, you have to understand what helps to create this. We live in one of the most...if not the most expensive region in the US. All though in recent months there has been a bit of a freeze in median price of the rental market, your average non-tech worker resident (for example, artists and creative types) cannot afford to pay $1,600 + a month for a hole-in-the-wall studio in Downtown Oakland. Also, there aren't a lot of nightlife options anywhere past 2 am. I will say it is a lot more complicated than that but the combination of the two definitely encourages people who live in warehouses and are able to supply space for nightlife events to go that route. Personally, I think a program like the one in New York (can't remember the name) which helps warehouses get up to residential building code would be a better middle ground solution.

Not one new agency or commenter mentions that a one bedroom apartment in Oakland can run three grand a month....http://www.mercurynews.com/2016/10/18/at-long-last-bay-area-rental-market-cools/
Sure, if you have a network news job, it's peanuts... Greed is Death...You'll see....

I'm already fed up with the feeding frenzy by many in our own community, and even more beyond the city limits, whose aim seems to be to exploit this atrocity. To each and every one of them I say; if you can't find a way to use your voice/power/energy to come to the aid of those who have suffered unbearable loss, or for those who stand to lose, then shut your mouths and get out of the way.

Really sounds like you're talking out of both sides of your mouth here.

You can't in one furtive sentence refer to "underfunded government agencies" to balance out an article that generally casts calls for stronger enforcement and reports from concerned neighbors as so me kind of gestapo-style crackdown. This has really been the most hysterical editorial I've read on this. It doesn't make me confident in the least that the Express will be the reporting I can look to for a calm, fair look at this issue.

Libby Schaff has been a disaster as Mayor ignoring any responsibility for inspecting apartment balconies to prevent collapse or sub standard firetrap housing. She like her brethren claims there is no money to house artists and those of modest means as rents soar into the heavens a place most of these folks will never get to. And what of the fire department that claimed it couldn't get an inspector onto the premises. We suppose that if it were someone with a gun the police department would have broken the door down but the supreme indifference to life and health cost nearly forty or more lives and lifelong trauma for survivors. Oakland can do better by cleaning up City Hall calling other elected officials to task including Barbara Lee strangely silent and President Obama who is happy to go round the world killing with drones spending hundreds of millions of dollars for death and destruction while advising us to eat cake but claims we can't afford to provide decent safe housing for people or stem the endless violent crime on our streets.

My heart is heavy at the loss of so many young talented artists with their whole lives ahead of them.
the incredible rising rents in the east bay have pushed many artists into unsafe buildings, where some landlords also lack the funds to upgrade their buildings for these venues or uses. After the fundraising for the victims and their families ends, a fundraising effort to upgrade these buildings could start, at least to make them safe. Fundraising could be led by sharing companies such as Uber and AIRBNB and tech companies such as Pandora, or Google, who have so many of their employees living in Oakland. And after all the housing needs of these companies are creating the pressure for rents. to rise. Support the arts and the artists!!

Conspiracy theory wrapped up in a comfy blanket of protecting the "scene."

Good! - expose those in power for not following basic safety codes and procedures. By all means, great thing to do. Please, go for it!

Also, expose and don't coddle those that are not in power for thinking they are exempt from basic safety codes and procedures because that is the lifestyle choice they want to make.

If you only do one, then you are playing wrapping yourself up in the victim flag. No one is forcing these people to live in squalor in one of the most expensive places in the world so that they can be part of a "scene." They can find some other way to make money rather than feel sorry for themselves as starving artists or they can move to a less expensive place to live. I do not remember the agreement that they are exempt from the realities of the world.

Can't afford to be part of a scene and party, dance and be creative in a super expensive area? Give me a break! The community has so many other more important needs and needy to tend to than "starving artists" or "creatives."

No one is being "forced" to live in unsafe warehouses. Those that do so are making a choice. They choose to live in one of the most expensive places to live in the country in order to meet some other social and cultural needs they perceive must be more important than safe and decent housing. Not a choice most would make - but the choice they make. Using "forced" as the description is victim mentality.

It is not the taxpayer's job nor is it the local government's job to subsidize those that want to live in the fringes by artistic choice. We have too many other problems - be it housing for the poor (not 20 somethings making a lifestyle choice), enough food for people, education and public safety from crime and violence.

This article is not about living conditions. This article is about concerts, parties and the like. There you have people invited into often unsafe and unlicensed facilities. Those responsible for arranging the gathering (and charging for it!) are in a whole new realm of accountability for the safety of others. Accountability for ensuring the safety of others and having these gatherings go hand in hand, whether you like it or not. That is why the regulations are there. Not getting caught and/or thinking you know safety limits better than the regulators is no OK. Especially when the victims, their families and the public at large are the ones who take the hit.

No doubt about it, this fire was a terribly tragic, preventable disaster. That is not a reason for witch hunts but nor is it a reason to encourage or permit people to continue to make dumb and irresponsible decisions.

Sorry. No one has a "right" to live in Oakland. And no one has the excuse of "it's too expensive" as rationale for ignoring safety codes and putting others at risk. Those who lived there ARE at least somewhat responsible. They saw the lit candles and sparking wires and said nothing.

I'd rather have artists leave and Oakland lose its soul instead of it losing 36 more lives.

"Specifically, Im talking about underfunded government agencies, and the myopic elected officials that ignored these departments needs. "

what agencies exactly are you talking about? fire and inspection departments? by their nature artist warehouses are illegal - people saving money and living under the radar in non-residential spaces. you can't bring the government in on this, they would have a liability nightmare on their hands and would have to evict people to follow the law. unfortunately, if you want to live under the radar, the burden is on you to keep yourself safe. not to blame the victims, but it's the reality of this type of life. maybe there needs to be an underground advocacy group of like-minded building/safety professionals to advise anonymously about a space, but you can't ask anyone to take on responsibility in situations like this. it's a can of worms all around. don't get me wrong, this tragedy is heartbreaking and terrible beyond belief, but blaming the government for this is completely off the mark.

and for the record i completely support artists living in warehouses, or anyone living nontraditional lives. but it comes with a different sets of responsibilities, it's just the reality.

People in power are to blame for this fire? What are you talking about? I seriously doubt that anyone is "blaming artists" for this terrible tragedy. The blame is pretty clearly on negligent landlord, bad-actor leaseholder, and promoters. Safety can be addressed without much money if you take it seriously. Im not saying artists need to bring their buildings "up-to-code" or that they are responsible for this, simply that we re all responsible for our own safety. The megalomaniac leaseholder knew this space was unsafe yet took money for events, the landlord turned a blind eye because the laws are weak, and the promoters wanted to have a party and blindly felt they could trust the other stakeholders. The artists and partygoers are innocent.

No one made Ion build that staircase. And, no one made people perform in "an exquisite deathtrap" as one previous promoter put it. Hold the powerful accountable, but also let the counterculture know that they don't need to go like lambs to the slaughter.
"With that show, I thought, It's at that spot? Fuck that place," Buchanan said. "The last time I was there, I stood by the exit the whole time just in case there was a fire. Having an event there with ten people to me is criminal negligence." This quote is from one of your own articles. Ion, was a particularly reckless player, enabled by others who felt they were serving a greater good.

Do not blame "lack of funds" and gentrifications for the space managers choice to profit on illegal sub-leasing, failure to install life safety / fire protection standards, adhere to capacity egress rules, and operate an entertainment venue negligently. These laws, like speeding or not driving drunk, are appropriately established to protect people; Government can do better at education and partnering with citizens - absolutely - but the newly arriving customers to the event that night had a reasonable expectation to a safe environment - they were tragically let down. Let's see how the City pivots and takes a leadership role to help make the community safer.

The way I see it, the fault lies almost entirely with one individual, Mr. Derick Almena. Under his direction, residents were exploited and both the civic authorities and property owners were purposefully decieved. This allowed the conditions to persist and worsen; while Mr. Almena profited financially.

His bizarre and distraught behavior has guilty written all over it. They will be coming for Mr. Almena quite soon, and he knows it.

Thank you. That home & building owners routinely pay higher permit fees and answer to a stricter intepretation of the code than "development contractors" is bad enough and probably extends to people who want to create creative spaces as well. Use your laser light on this topic.Please.

If the "people in power" had shut the place down, or required GS to get the necessary fixes, which would have pushed up what they'd have to charge for rent, the editorial here would say, "Oakland Regulations Push Prices Out of Reach for Most Artists." The "people in power" are damned if they do and damned if they don't.

my heart breaks at the loss of so many young artists and muscians, who are the soul of Oakland. After the end of fundraising for the victims and families,
a new fundraising drive should start to help fund safety up grades for the many warehouses used by Oakland's artists. Oakland Technology companies
such as Pandora and Uber could spear head this effort . It sems technology, although a huge benefit for Oakland, is also the driver of high rents which are forcing some into unsafe warehouses.